Voice activated dialing (VAD) is a popular time-saving feature available on many communication devices. This feature enables a caller to simply speak an instruction such as “Call Michael” into his or her communications unit, and a call is placed to Michael's telephone number. Before the VAD feature may actually be used, however, the user typically must set up a personal VAD directory so that the VAD system is able to carry out the instructions from the caller. The personal VAD directory may include entries with each entry including an identity of a called party or entity and a corresponding telephone number. When the caller speaks the call instruction, the VAD system matches the name or phrase spoken by the caller to an identity in the caller's personal VAD directory, and the call is routed to the telephone number corresponding to the identity.
A problem with the VAD feature is that the extent of its use by a caller generally depends on the content of the caller's personal VAD directory. If a caller gives the VAD instruction of “Call Bob”, and there is no match in the caller's personal VAD directory, then no VAD call can be made to Bob. Thus, a user who has spent a lot of time and effort inputting or having input many names and corresponding telephone numbers into his or her personal VAD directory has a lot of options in making VAD calls. A user who has only a few names and corresponding telephone numbers in his or her personal VAD directory is limited to making VAD calls to only those few people. But even a user who has a lot of entries in his or her personal VAD directory may desire or find a need to make a VAD call to a person or entity who is not included in the user's personal VAD directory. Without a name and corresponding telephone number in the caller's personal VAD directory, the caller may not take advantage of the convenience and speed of VAD calling.
For example, a mother who is stuck in traffic and running late to pick up her daughter from day care may desire to place a call from her car to the day care center to alert the personnel of her tardiness. Even if the mother has a thousand or more entries in her personal VAD directory, unless she has included the day care center and its corresponding telephone number in her personal VAD directory, she is unable to make a VAD call to the day care center.
Instead of making a VAD call, the mother must obtain the telephone number of the day care center from another source such as directory assistance. Some directory assistance systems give the user the option of having a call automatically placed to the requested telephone number. There may be a fee associated with this option. If the option is unavailable or the mother wants to avoid the fee, the mother must make a notation of or memorize the number provided by directory assistance. Only then can the mother place the call to the day care center. In sum, by failing to include the day care center and its telephone number in her personal VAD directory, the mother may have to carry out at least three steps in order to call the day care center: find the day care center's telephone number; note or memorize the telephone number; and call the telephone number. Taking these steps obviously takes up time and involves effort. The mother may not have the time nor be able to expend the effort while stuck in traffic to safely carry out these steps.
In sum, there is a need for a way for a caller having the VAD feature on his or her communications device to be able to make a VAD call to a person or entity not included in the caller's personal VAD directory.